Last Updated on November 21, 2022 by Shabnam Sengupta
Thalassemia may affect the brain of a patient in several ways. Several studies indicate the nervous system involvement in thalassemia patients.
What is thalassemia?
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder which happens when the body is not able to make enough hemoglobin. The protein hemoglobin enables red blood cells to carry oxygen, and thalassemia can cause anemia, leaving you weak and fatigued. Research published in 2022 shows the condition causes fatigue, weakness, pale or yellowish skin, and poor appetite. It also causes facial bone deformities, slow body growth, abdominal swelling, and dark urine. A mild condition might cause only fatigue. Also, some people might remain asymptomatic and show no symptoms.
What is the effect of thalassemia on the brain?
Neurological complications in thalassemia patients have been associated with chronic hypoxia, bone marrow expansion, iron overload, and desferrioxamine neurotoxicity.
However, in most cases, there are no subclinical signs and symptoms due to neurological involvement. The neurological involvement is generally detected in neurophysiological or neuroimaging evaluation.
Abnormal findings in the visual, auditory, and somatosensory evoked potential recordings are mainly because of DFO (Deferoxamine, an antidote for iron poisoning) neurotoxicity. Neuropsychological studies available reveal a considerably high prevalence of abnormal IQ, not correlating, however, to factors such as hypoxia or iron overload.
The MR imaging of the brain of thalassemia patients indicated that patients with thalassemia intermedia and those with sickle cell-thalassemia disease might have asymptomatic brain damage.
An Egyptian study concluded that iron overload might happen in major children with repeated blood transfusions and hemolysis in β-Thalassemia. This iron load can happen in various organs, including the brain, which may cause neurodegeneration. If this happens, the brain stops functioning properly. To prevent iron overload, people with thalassemia may need chelation therapy to remove excess iron before it builds up in the brain and other organs.
Another cognitive study on thalassemia patients indicated that patients who had thalassemia had a lower cognitive function, especially concerning attention, verbal memory and executive function, as compared to the control group.
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